by Scott, Ada
Eventually I came back down from my orgasm and Jeff’s movements were reduced to the occasional twitch and heavy breathing. I brought my hand out from my panties and gripped his cock again, sucking hard as I pulled back.
It made a comical popping sound as it escaped my lips and I made an ‘oops’ face, but Jeff didn’t seem to care, reaching under my arms to drag me on top of him for a tight embrace. I snuggled up against his neck.
“I liked that,” I confided, quietly.
Jeff turned and kissed my forehead before settling back. I held him tight and basked in the afterglow for a few minutes, my eyes sometimes widening in surprise as I reflected upon what had just happened.
It was almost too much to believe. My boyfriend had cum in my mouth while I climaxed myself. Surely not? But the evidence was still right in front of me, his cock slowly softening but still wet from the blowjob I had given.
The sounds of the outside world couldn’t quite make it through into the warm bubble Jeff and I existed in. I was aware of them, but the chirping birds and cicadas were just background noise to the contentment I felt.
However, the sound of a car approaching and slowing down was a different matter. Jeff startled under me and we quickly adjusted ourselves as Jeff’s dad pulled into the driveway.
By the time he had parked, we were out of the truck. I prayed I didn’t have any stray spurts of cum on me. How could I ever live that down?
“Lunch!” Mr. Hatcher announced, retrieving some groceries from the back seat.
Chopper emerged from his kiddy pool and did a full-body shake that started at his nose and ended with one leg cocked out backwards before trotting over to give his seal of approval on the lunch idea.
“Hey there, Hazel. You letting my boy get any work done?”
“Of course, he barely notices me when that truck is around,” I said.
“Ah well, stick around for some lunch? It’s just sandwiches, but…” he shrugged.
“That’d be great, thanks.”
Jeff’s dad made sandwiches for everybody and brought them out to the porch.
“Hey, I wanna get a picture of this fine meal I’ve made so I can insta-chat it to my e-friends like you kids. Let’s all gather around if you wanna be in the photo too.”
“Ha. Ha,” said Jeff.
My laughter was more genuine than Jeff’s, but he sat next to the plate of sandwiches on one step while I sat between his legs on the next step down. As for Chopper, well, he didn’t seem to have any plans to be too far from the food as Mr. Hatcher propped up his phone on a fence post and set the timer before joining us.
The phone took the picture and then we tucked in. The bread was fresh, the sun was warm, the breeze was cool and I was in love. What had I done to deserve this perfect moment?
Welcome Back
Hazel - After
“Mommy, look!”
“Yes, Sienna-pies, I see.”
This was a good playground, I didn’t know why it was almost always completely deserted. It had a couple nice slides, plenty of things to climb around on and Sienna was showing me how she could now make the swing go all by herself while I sat on a bench and Molly wandered around sniffing things.
Hazel Poppleton.
The name sprang into my mind again unbidden and I brought my fist to my mouth to stifle a sob. My throat worked hard as if trying to swallow some unchewed food before I choked to death on it and eventually the panic subsided.
“Mommy! Look!”
She was even higher now, really getting the hang of swinging her legs at the right moment. I waved.
Was I the crazy one? Were my dad and everybody else the ones who saw James as he really was, and I was wrong?
Ella certainly thought so. My heart gained a few pounds. I hadn’t thought of my former best friend in a while. Hadn’t even seen her since she left on the big trip we’d wanted to go on together. She’d never come back.
Maybe James was… I gulped… maybe James was right to hit me. I wasn’t behaving, didn’t understand my place as he would say.
Sienna started to go so high that the chains of the swing started to go slack at the top of her swing then taut again as she came back down.
“That’s high enough, Sienna.”
“Can you push me, Mommy?”
“You’re doing fine, sweetie.”
Just say ‘yes’ to James and I could stop worrying about if I was going to be able to buy Sienna a new pair of shoes when these ones disintegrated. I could stop worrying about how damp and draughty the rental properties were in my price range.
I remembered the evening with my parents a few days ago and made a correction. How damp and draughty the rental properties above my price range were.
My teeth clenched together and I wiped my eyes when my vision blurred. I couldn’t seem to do anything by myself. Sienna deserved so much more.
Like a good mother…
My dad’s words hurt so much. They say the truth hurts, right? I sighed as those dreams that had blossomed one summer approximately a billion years ago wilted and faded.
So you’ll do it?
Maybe.
You’ll really marry James Poppleton?
I guess so. Right now though… I’ve got to play with Sienna. It won’t be long until she’s all grown up and won’t want to play anymore. If I miss this now… I’ll miss it later.
I walked over behind the swing and started pushing Sienna so the swing went high enough without going too far and getting shaky.
“Hold on tight and close your eyes, see if it feels like you’re flying.”
“Whoa!”
“Did it?” I asked.
“Sort of, but a bit scary too.”
“You know I love you a lot, right?”
Sienna groaned. “Yes, you tell me all the time. Love you, too.”
The corner of my mouth raised and I snorted out a single chuckle. Holding out my hand in the spot I knew Sienna would swing to, I took my turn to close my eyes while I continued pushing.
OK. We had a roof over our heads and food in our bellies. My daughter knew I loved her. Life could be worse. My problems wouldn’t magically go away, but for a few minutes I could at least acknowledge that there were worse places to be.
After a while Sienna ran out of steam on the swing and went to climb around a bit. I pulled out a tennis ball from my bag and she had a great time playing with Molly. Sienna would throw the ball down the tunnel slide, while Molly waited for it at the bottom. Sometimes the ball would bounce right into Molly’s face, sometimes she’d have to scamper around for it. Either way, it was the funniest thing Sienna had ever seen. Then she’d bring it to me and I’d reach up and give it back to Sienna.
“Mommy, I need to go pee,” said Sienna.
“Really? I asked before we left.”
“I didn’t need to go then.”
“OK, come on down.”
A public restroom, that was one thing this playground was missing. We hadn’t been here very long, but when you gotta go, you gotta go, I supposed.
Between talking to Sienna and with Molly dragging the leash from side to side, I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary until I looked up and saw our gate was off its hinges and was leaned against the fence. I first looked to the street, searching for a van with some home maintenance logo on the side, thinking our landlord had finally done something.
When I didn’t see any likely vehicle, I turned towards our front door and felt like a thunderclap had gone off inside my chest. My hands went numb and the leash slipped to the ground, but Molly stayed close.
She’d spotted the big rottweiler sitting in our front yard as surely as I’d spotted the man standing next to it. Him.
After all these years, him. Jeff Hatcher was standing in my yard and even from this distance I could see the familiar flash of his green cat-eyes looking at me, those eyes that knew me more intimately than any others.
Half of me wanted to run to him, jump into his arms and bury my face
against his neck to hide from the world. I wanted him to take care of everything, take care of me, if only for a second, if only for long enough to convince myself that I wasn’t all alone, that I had a true partner again.
The other half of me was furious at the first half, absolutely fucking incandescent with rage at the thought of running back to the man who disappeared without so much as a text message. He was supposed to love me and look at what happened.
The warring halves made me feel like a crystal figurine with cracks forming all over my surface before shattering into a million pieces. The only thing holding me together was the motherly mission of getting my daughter,
Holy shit… our daughter,
to the bathroom before there was an accident.
I bent down, picked up the leash, and entered through the broken gate. Molly’s reluctance became paws-dug-in refusal when Chopper padded over to us.
Jeff’s mouth opened and closed a few times as if searching for the right words. My mouth may have been doing the same, I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t sure if I spoke English anymore. The numbness that first afflicted my hands had spread to the rest of my skin and I felt like I was simply being carried along in this broken body that wasn’t even mine anymore.
Chopper sniffed Molly’s rear and Molly hunkered down staring at the huge dog with wild eyes that expressed regret about not getting her last will and testament in order. She went belly-up and Chopper moved on to investigate Sienna with his little stump-tail wagging. As soon as Sienna touched him, he adopted the same pose as Molly.
“Mommy, can I pet him?” she asked.
I heard myself say yes, my eyes focused on the man who was now close enough that I swore I could feel the heat radiating off him.
“Hi, Hazel,” he said, finally.
That was it? ‘Hi, Hazel’? After all these years? ‘Hi, Hazel’?
Hearing his voice was all it took to shift the balance of power with those warring halves inside of me. A fountain of grief and rage rose up and I started shaking a little.
“Sienna, go inside.” My voice quivered.
“But…”
“You needed to pee, remember.” I could hear the strain.
“Oh yeah!”
I pulled the keys out of my pocket and held the right one up for her. She took it and, after a little difficulty, scampered inside.
Molly wouldn’t move, so I dropped the leash again and walked around Jeff like he was a land mine to close the door.
“She’s… she looks like you,” said Jeff.
“Rrrrraaahhhhh!” I screamed in his face and pushed him as hard as I could.
There were no real words that could be spoken that loudly that would have been able to carry all the anger and pain I needed to let out. That primal yell barely dialed me back from a nuclear meltdown. Blood rushed to my face and I felt wind cooling the tears running down my cheeks.
Jeff’s eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed, his features hardening.
“I came back to-”
“Fuck you!” I spun on my heel and opened the front door. “Molly!”
Sensing the last lifeboat being lowered, Molly rolled over and shot past my legs before I shut the door behind me and sank down to my butt leaning against it, sobbing.
What if he leaves for another five years? Or forever?
The half that wanted to go to Jeff, battered but not killed, spoke up in my mind. The last time I felt truly happy was in those arms out there.
Yes, even now I wanted to stand up, open the door and run… no sprint… no fly, into those arms, wanted to feel like I was home again and everything would be OK. But he left. He left me here all alone to deal with everything, so damned if I was going to let him hurt me again.
A Fine Plan
Hazel - Before
Chapter 13 Hazel Before
“Don’t be late.” My father’s voice came through the gap in the door just as I closed it. He couldn’t help but get the last word.
I could feel my parents’ disapproving stares burning into the back of my head as I trotted down the stairs towards Jeff and his dad’s old Ford.
Jeff met me at the bottom with open arms and the burning sensation faded away, all but forgotten as I slowed down the last few steps and let myself gently melt into a hug. I took a deep breath and sighed contentedly as I wrapped my arms around him and felt his drape over my shoulders, his hands pressed against my back to pull me tight against him.
“Hey cutie, how’s everything?” he asked.
I rested my cheek on his chest and looked up at him with one last powerful squeeze before I let go. “Great, now. Hey, Rusty Lightning is lookin’ good.” I nodded at the car.
“Yeah, I spent more time than I want to admit detailing it so my dad would let us borrow it tonight. And they say you can’t polish a turd!”
“Morons!” I laughed.
Jeff pulled the handle and hit the door with his knee to open the passenger side for me even though I’d long since gotten the hang of it myself.
Jeff drove us for half an hour to the suburbs of Shackleford where the city had set up a temporary drive-in theatre for a few weeks. With a rented Bluetooth speaker sitting on the dash, some snacks and a pretty good spot, we enjoyed a screening of Back to the Future.
Towards the end we were getting a little handsy with each other and, afterwards, Jeff drove to a hill overlooking the city lights and parked. I removed my seatbelt as soon as the engine was switched off and was halfway across the center console by the time Jeff had his seatbelt undone.
Jeff returned my eager kiss, but pulled away when I tried to move closer. “Wait,” he said.
“Hmm?”
He leaned over and around me, reaching for the glove compartment. It was an awkward maneuver given where I was straddling, but he managed to pull out a little giftwrapped something or other.
“Aw… baby, you don’t have to…” I said.
“Yeah, but I want to.”
I squirmed around a little to sit on his lap before I carefully pulled the wrapping paper off. Inside was a notebook with the words “Travel Journal” on the front. I started flicking through the pages.
“The idea is that you color in each of the countries that you visit,” said Jeff, pointing at a world map. “I dunno how far you wanna go in your gap year, so there’s another map on the next page of just the U.S., so you can color in the states, and then…”
I continued flicking pages, revealing mostly blank lines, with spaces to fill in places and dates.
“… you fill in the rest with whatever you want.”
My mind’s eye could already see these pages filled with words and doodles, hearts with “JH+HR” in them. Most pages started with “Jeff and I went to” and the thrill of all those adventures yet to be had, all those experiences to share and hugs to savor were almost palpable.
“I love it,” I said.
To my surprise, the words came out all choked up and I realized I was on the verge of crying. I buried my face against Jeff’s neck and wrapped my arms around him, accidentally hitting him in the side of the head with the travel journal.
“Ow.”
“Sorry.” I dropped the book on the passenger seat.
“Are you crying?” he asked.
“No comment.”
“Are you crying?”
“No hablo ingles.”
Jeff reached up, wiped a tear off my cheek and gave me a squeeze. “I was thinkin’…”
“What?”
“If you go on this trip… I mean when you go on this trip, I… um… I know you’ve been planning this with Ella, but how about I come along too?”
I sat up and gave him a look as if he’d just told me the sun would come up in the morning. “Of course! I thought that was a given.”
“And so… the gap year is definitely a thing?” he asked.
I sucked air in through my teeth like a mechanic when you tell him the make and model of your car. “Um… I guess that bit is a little less of a given
. My dad… you know, and my mom just goes along with whatever he says.”
“If you want it, you’ve gotta tell them it’s happening.”
“Ugh. I know… but he’s not gonna like it.”
“He’ll get over it,” said Jeff.
The tip of my nose itched, so I rubbed it against Jeff’s stubble and sighed. “Yeah, maybe.”
For a while, I just sat there on Jeff’s lap, my head on his shoulder, staring out at the lights of the city, breathing in his cologne contentedly. I tried to think about how the conversation with my parents should go, but Jeff’s presence was too distracting. He smelled like a rugged kind of aphrodisiac tonight.
“What do you think it’ll be like?” I said, half to myself.
“What? The gap year?”
“Yeah. Or… I suppose, life in general. Why do my parents have to make such a big deal out of everything?”
“Pfff. Who knows? I mean, it can’t be as difficult as they make it out to be, right?”
“I know, tell me about it,” I said.
“Like, there’s more ways to make a living than running a vineyard.”
“My dad would have a heart attack if you told him that.”
“I mean, if that’s your thing, then go for it, but let other people do their thing. That’s what I think, anyway.”
I ran my hand over his chest absentmindedly. “What do you think is your thing?”
Jeff didn’t speak for long enough that I almost forgot I’d asked a question. “As far as working goes… I like tinkering with cars. It’s been a blast restoring the Chevy.”
“You think you’d still like doing it if it wasn’t your own car you were working on?” I asked.
“Yep! I think so.”
“What should I do?” I asked.
Jeff paused, but not for as long as his own answer. “How about you run a doggy daycare? You love animals, you’re good with animals. No cockatoo ever tried to pick a fight with you.”
Invisible strings slowly yanked the corners of my mouth up as I imagined myself surrounded by dogs, and cats too when I expanded my imaginary business. “Oh my gosh… I’d love them, and pet them and squeeze them and maybe never give them back. I’d put up a fight, at least.”
